Costly election pledges in France stoke fears of splurges that risk pushing country deeper into debt

abcnews.go.com:

In France, parties of the far right and the far left are making election promises that are appealing — and expensive

PARIS — The promises are appealing -– and expensive.

Vying to oust the centrist government of President Emmanuel Macron in an upcoming two-round parliamentary election June 30 and July 7, French political parties of both the far right and far left are vowing to cut gasoline taxes, let workers retire earlier and raise wages.

Their campaign pledges threaten to bust an already-swollen government budget, push up French interest rates and strain France’s relations with the European Union.

“The snap election could well replace Macron’s limping centrist government with one led by parties whose campaigns have abandoned any pretense of fiscal discipline,’’ economist Brigitte Granville of Queen Mary University of London wrote Thursday on the Project Syndicate website.

The turbulence began June 9 when voters handed Macron a defeat at the hands of Marine Le Pen’s hard right National Rally party in EU parliamentary elections. Macron promptly and surprisingly called a snap parliamentary election, convinced that French voters would rally to prevent the first far-right government from taking power in France since the Nazi occupation in World War II.

Macron is aligned against both Le Pen’s National Rally and the New Popular Front, a coalition of far- to center-left parties.

“The center has kind of evaporated,’’ said French economist Nicolas Veron, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The National Rally and the New Popular Front are “radical in very different ways, but they’re both very far from the mainstream.’’

The political extremes are benefiting from widespread voter discontent about